Dear Graduate Students,
I hope your fall semester is off to a strong start and that your studies are going well.
Since the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs (OGPA) was established in 2022, we have worked hard to enhance the graduate student experience at The George Washington University. Some of our key accomplishments have included the following:
- A dedicated website,
- New minimum compensation amounts and position titles for graduate assistants,
- An increased health insurance subsidy for fully-funded graduate students,
- A newly developed pedagogical training course for Graduate Student Lecturers and others who may be interested in pursuing academic teaching,
- An increase to the baseline package value for fellowships funded through the Office of Graduate Student Assistantships and Fellowships,
- A refreshed Presidential Fellowship program,
- Enhanced programming for events such as the Three Minute Thesis Competition and Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week,
- An expanded policy that offers more flexibility to graduate assistants to work up to 40 hours per week depending on their funding level.
It has been important to us to enhance your experience on a variety of fronts, from financial to professional.
This academic year, we continue to consider other ways to improve the experience of being a graduate student at GW and draw the very best scholars to our community. Enhancements under consideration include continued review and adjustments of graduate assistant compensation, implementing a student conference travel grant program, and establishing a parental leave policy for graduate students. As we think about these and other potential enhancements, we want to ensure we are taking into account feedback from our graduate student population. Your voice is critical. OGPA encourages graduate students to participate in student governance by serving on the Senate and grad-focused committees of the Student Government Association (SGA). In collaboration with those committees, we have created a graduate student handbook that will be published soon. OGPA will also be hosting a town hall for graduate students later this year to seek feedback.
You are of course welcome to reach out to us at any time at [email protected] to share your thoughts on these ideas and anything else on your mind.
Thank you, and I wish you a successful fall semester.
Sincerely,
Suresh Subramaniam
Vice Provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs